Food! – Page 2 – RIT German Games Industry 2019

The Fires of Frankfurt

We woke up at a reasonable time to get on our train from Paderborn to Frankfurt to start the second half of our trip. Just before heading out, we got the opportunity to buy some breakfast and a snack for the train. After some debating with myself, I decided not to buy any candy for the train, but instead, buy a supplement to the breakfast I had at In Via.

All that shininess on the pastries is sugar icing of some kind, by the way.

The train ride was plenty comfy, and had WiFi, so I spent it writing one of these blog posts. In what felt like no time at all, we were off the first train and waiting for the second. I decided to wander, see if I wanted to buy anything, and look for a bathroom. Find a bathroom I did, but at a price. Literally.

I was thinking to myself, figuratively, that bathrooms are a commodity in these midway train stations, and then I see a toll booth, with more secure doors than I’ve seen than any other toll booth in recent memory. I don’t know if the goal is to get stingy people to resort to desperate measures, or what, but regardless, it was easily the worst bathroom I’ve been in the whole trip. Even in other public bathrooms, the toilet seats were on securely and they didn’t smell bad. It wasn’t unworkable, though. One doesn’t require much to go through the bathroom process.

The next ride in our trip to Frankfurt didn’t have enough seats for all of us, but me and a couple others got by sitting on our suitcases. I played against Alex in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and got moderately to severely bodied for all but one match, which coincidentally happened to be our last one. I’m not saying he rage-quit, but… (He absolutely did not rage quit. I’m merely obligated to make an overconfident joke about it.)

Frankfurt, like Paderborn, made a terrible first impression. Though we got there very much in time, unlike my arrival to Paderborn, it was hot as all hell, seemed fairly shabby (I would later learn this is only the case for the area near the train station), and vaguely stank of smoke. It was even hotter in the hotel, even in the lobby, and only some lucky customers get a ceiling fan in their room. It’s not even an extra charge. I pity, and worry for those without a window OR ceiling fan.

After the raging thunderstorm that exploded onto the scene almost as soon as we set foot in the hotel, the sky brightened once more, like night turning into day. It was only half past four, but it felt like eight throughout the storm, and the brightness of the sky was frankly a little disorienting. Not disorienting enough, however, to prevent us from going out to dinner.

I’m pretty sure there were intermediate events, but I’ve forgotten them if so. We found a nice place called Salzkammer, which was constantly playing music that sounded uncannily similar to Despacito for the entire time we were there.

Here’s Despacito in German. I’m not sorry.

I had a schnitzel, followed by some white chocolate mousse. “Sweet and sour rhubarb” didn’t quite sound like the kind of thing I’d enjoy, but I had faith that it wouldn’t be put in with the strawberry, white chocolate, and vanilla ice cream if it didn’t go well with it, and that faith was well placed. It certainly couldn’t match the strawberries (which I’m beginning to think I should eat more often), but it was no slouch.

Finally, Frankfurt had one more special event planned for me; it introduced me to Frick and the MEAT ROOM. I did not enter either of these stores(?), and do not plan to change that, because I fear the consequences.

And so, my first night at Frankfurt came to a close. The stupid levels of heat were thankfully beaten back a little by a fan graciously given to me by the front desk, and allowed me to sleep fairly well. All’s well that ends well?

Big Studio Day

In the morning, we took a tour of Nintendo, Germany. All of us were super excited, yet some were tired(or just me). As a star company, Nintendo is very careful about its information; we were given visitor passes, had to sign in and were only exposed to certain areas. On the 16th floor is the European headquarter of Nintendo where we weren’t allowed to go. In this building, there are no game developers(they are mainly in Japan as we were told), instead, it’s a marketing and localization team for the European market. Very nice and understandable of the organizer, we were treated to some freshly brewed coffee before the tour started. After passing 100 security doors, two PR workers gave us a presentation on the company’s history, values, and leaders. The lady was very patient with us during the question session, however, all of the questions were about marketings rather than game development. Afterward, we had lunch at their cafeteria and I dripped tomato sauce on my white shirt, rip. I think the break room was the highlight of our Nintendo trip where they display the old consoles, Nintendo figures and a bunch of other gears. It was like a Nintendo museum. There was an employee only shop where I bought 2 amiibos, 4 coasters, and a keychain with the host’s help.

How a smart was parked, thought was funny

Our second stop was Crytek. For those who doesn’t know the company, they were the original developer of FarCry(Ubisoft now owns the IP), Crisis series, RYSE son of Rome, Robinson and their newest game Hunt showdown(still in EA). For their presentation, the HR demonstrated a brief overview of the company and how to get jobs in the interview. After that, Brian gave us a live demo on CryEngine; I can tell he tried really hard to sell us the engine but… In my opinion, CryEngine has a lot of potentials and may be able to compete with Unity or Enreal in 5 years, but for now, it has a lack of functionality. I understand that they made the Engine for Crysis and it’s a side project of the company, yet I just don’t think it’s ready to be popular. For example, Brian showed us how you can add invisible wheels with spring to an empty mesh to create a trampoline without writing scripts, however, you’d have to play with the two values to make the perfect elasticity. First of all, it’s kind of weird to have wheels on random meshes even though they are invisible. Second of all, it takes a lot of time to come up with the perfect values while you don’t have a formula.

Even though the presentations were a little frustrating, I enjoyed Crytek the most out of all companies. Because it was very casual and people actually make games in the office. We got to walk around their studios and talk to people, many of them were catching deadlines for Hunt’s new patch and all QAs were working hard. The whole floor was overheated, no doubt, feeling bad for the game developers. We weren’t allowed to take pictures at all due to upcoming releases.

After the two companies, we headed to a ramen place for dinner. It was a 20 minute walk and I was hangry the entire ride. My day was very fulfilling and I was satisfied with what I saw.

Eltvile am Rhein

Eltville is a small town an hour away from Frankfurt, known for its wine, sparkling wine (Sekt), and roses. It is a very neat town that reminds me of Stardew Valley, where everyone knows everyone, there’s nothing but peace and relaxation.

I had a slow start this morning since I decided to sleep in. I pretty much just grabbed a drink from Starbucks and then got ready for our little trip. After we arrived at the town, we made our first stop at an ice cafe and I enjoyed a vanilla ice cream coffee. Then, we walked around the town a little bit and chilled by the river for a while. It was a really peaceful moment that I chatted with my friends while staring at the river. Besides boats, there were also people kayaking, crewing, jet skiing and so on. Followed by, we enjoyed some drinks at a bar by the river. It had perfect selfie lighting where I took 100 pictures until we had to leave for the garden.

The garden was absolutely beautiful! We got there at 6:30pm ish which is the time for perfect sunset lighting again!!! I made Sam take i++ pictures for me until he couldn’t bear with me anymore. (poor Sam) The mayor showed up at around 7pm and gave us a tour of the tower which contained a little museum and a small meeting room. In the museum, there was a case full of letters where capital letters are stored on the top rows, thus, they are also called upper case.

Back in the garden, the mayor prepared a little champagne and pretzel ceremony for us. It was so fancy that I have never experienced such in my life. I felt rich. Coming back home wasn’t so hot anymore, the train was actually cool and bearable. Surprising, I did not end my day at a bar again, instead, I wrote blogs with a nice mango colada by my side.

Did not steal anyone’s drink for this picture.

Tuesday in Frankfurt: Electorate Castle

After surviving nights of sauna-level heat at night, we took a tour of the Electorate Castle today in Frankfurt. This castle is as old as the 14th century, and contains an exhibit of the work of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of modern book printing. After having a drink at the bar by the river, we looked around the garden in the courtyard, then we went upstairs to see the exhibit.

Photos courtesy of the talented Penny Wang

Inside, there was a case which contained letter and number stamps which were used for printing books and newspapers. I believe we discovered where the term “upper case” for capital letters came from; the capital letters were stored on the top row of cases.

We also got ice cream prior to the tour. I finally got original spaghettieis this time, with strawberry sauce that resembles tomato sauce.

The tour was given by none other than the Mayor of Frankfurt, who mentioned to us that he worked on designing and publishing comic books, which are well-known throughout Germany. Afterward, we took a group picture together

Getting to Frankfurt

Today was just a traveling day. I had pretty much packed my suitcase already so my morning was chill. I sat in the cafeteria and drank coffee until our cab was almost here. Which my professor found out later that our breakfast wasn’t free; we drank 500 euros worth of coffee for the past few days.

Unfortunately, our first train was delayed that we couldn’t make it to our connection ride. However, I think the Germans are very experienced with situations like this so we quickly had a backup plan for a different connection. In the first train ride, we did not know where to get off until the very last minute so everyone was panicking to get their suitcases and to rush off the train. Our second ride was quite sick, I would say. First of all, we did not have seats where many of us had to stand for a couple of hours (I was lucky enough to get a seat). Second of all, I was overheating the entire ride!!! Especially when the train stopped for 10min before the final destination, I could not breathe there.

The hotel has a very convenient location that’s just across from the train station. But for the same reason, the hotel is also very aged without AC. I understand that it is a German thing most places don’t have ACs; so I’m trying my best to adapt. After we settled down at the hotel, it started pouring which cooled down that temperature a lot. Then, I popped into Stephen’s cab for dinner where I had caramelized pancakes. It was so delicious that it’s even compatible with my favorite dutch pancakes. I also couldn’t believe that Stephen tricked me to look away so he could steal my pancakes.

Saturday in Paderborn (Game Jam Day 3)

Today was the third day of our game jam with German students. We made a good amount of progress on Soshi Shinobi, though Xbox controls with 2 controllers continues to be a pain to program. Though at this point keyboard controls work with Player 1 on WASD and Player 2 on keyboard keys. Switching works properly, too. At about 5:00, we took a break from the game jam to go have dinner at a barbecue.

The German students prepared a variety of food for all of us, including hamburgers, sausages, hot dogs, grilled cheese (literally), and steak. Some of us sat on blankets, others at tables, while Alex put his Minecraft wisdom to use to create his own throwing axe.

Before and after dinner, we played a fun little drinking game called Flunkyball. Two even teams of people line up with an alcoholic beverage in front of them on the ground. Between both teams is a half-full 2-liter bottle of soda (courtesy of me…), and each person on each team throws a ball at it to try and knock it over. If they’re successful in knocking it over, everyone on the team picks up their beverage and drinks as quickly as they can. Two people designated on the opposite team must run over and stand the soda bottle back up, and pick up the ball and bring it behind their own line of beverages, then shout “stop!” Then the scoring team stops drinking, and a player on the opposite team tries next. If a player misses, nobody drinks, and the next player on the opposite team tries next. The game ends when everybody on one team finishes, and that team wins.

On to Frankfurt

Today was our last day in Paderborn at the In Via Hotel. It was a pretty uneventful day, except for taking 3 hours worth of train rides to Frankfurt. I discovered in some places you have to pay one euro to use the restroom (What?) Despite 90-degree weather continuing to plague us, some of us were fortunate enough to have fans and windows to open up in our rooms.

After getting settled into the hotel, we had some dinner. I had schnitzel for the first time, which is veal pounded flat as a pancake, then fried.

Afterward we went out for drinks.

I ordered a frozen strawberry margarita.

Week One Wrap-up

Saturday night at 5 we arose from our jamming and took a brief walk in the now very summery weather. Our destination: barbecue! We found a nice big park and set up shop with burgers and bratwurst. We spend a good few hours enjoying the sunny afternoon before some people started heading back to work in the labs.

Sunday was the last day of the jam, with work officially to cease at 3pm. My task at the moment was to integrate the UI for the game end screen, showing the scores and player names. The coders meanwhile were scrambling to clean up bugs. By the time of the presentation, our game unfortunately did not have it’s core mechanic implemented. It did, however, feature working networked multiplayer between 4 computers.

Post Mortem: Strike Counter was kinda doomed from the start. Not to fail, but to not get very far. I was impressed by how my team was able to get networking up, but the time and energy spent on this one feature left little room to integrate any of the interesting design ideas that inspired the game.

After every team’s presentation and respective critiques, we posed for a big group photo. We were told this photo would go on the fill the last empty spot in the university’s hall of fame, so I guess I’m a little honored. The rest of the day was left to us, and I had one last castle to get to.

Schloß Neuhaus is a really pretty castle surrounded by the same peaceful river that flows through Paderborn. It apparently functions today as a high school. Sunday, however, was right in the midst of Schützenfest, a lively holiday in which certain townspeople are crowned royalty for a year. That night, the kings and queens of the last year had their final celebration in their finest clothing as the whole town gathered for festivities. I helped myself to some ice cream and finally tried out currywurst before heading back through a scenic wooded area right on the water.

We also had one last dinner with some of our good friends who wouldn’t be joining us in Frankfurt. The place we chose sold a 40 euro burger that can apparently get you in another hall of fame, but we decided to save it for next time.

Beat the Boss Post-Mortem & Final Paderborn Dinner Review

There’s a reason I wanted to work on Beat the Boss as opposed to all the other games that weren’t left on the cutting room floor (rest in peace, DDWD, gone too soon). Not only did it seem in scope, it seemed genuinely fun just from concept alone. I didn’t, however, account for the infallible mantra every game developer should be following whenever they make a new game: “My game is out of scope.”

The rest of my team didn’t recognize that either until they got their hands on their keyboards, and removed the whole “elemental synergy” thing as soon as they did. It’s from that point that the game design turned into an indecisive whirlwind of disjointed ideas; we only really discussed the design in the beginning, before we’d removed the elemental abilities. This led to another all too common issue; a communication deficiency.

I’ve mentioned that I felt like an intern already, but I also felt like an ambassador; a coder and secondary game-designer that bridged the gap between one side of the room and the other, literally.

Now that I think about it, the only thing I worked on for the entire jam that actually got implemented properly was the text inside of the boss’s health bar. None of the abilities got put in despite them all being 97% done (all they needed was some damage inflicting code), and my fully functioning cooldown icons were dropped as well due to bugs in experimental lighting and whatnot taking priority. We had models for breakable pots in the background and pretty destructible pillars, but no final character model, fireball model (even though fireballs for the boss were made), or crossbow bolt model. We didn’t even implement the shield model that was displayed front and center on one of the statues. The focus seemed to be on graphics, and yet, half of the game straight up didn’t have graphics to begin with. Our game was a jack of all trades, master of none, and that could have been changed with some more communication, and maybe a reevaluation of priorities.

Despite all that griping and despite my dissatisfaction with how little I got to actually do for the game, we managed to make something very nice for a handful of days. A jack of all trades, master of none is nothing to sneeze at for a game jam game; it’s leagues better than a broken mess that barely works. Even despite all the issues I think we had, all we really needed to iron them out was time.

A gameplay video given to us by Ingo, one of our teammates.

After the game jam presentations, however, we had some time to relax, and after that, dinner, at a burger place I can’t remember the name of at the moment.

I decided on getting a “DT Bacon Dog,” some ginger ale, and some Calamari, deciding that, worst case scenario, I’d feet it to my associates should I not have room / not like them very much. Meanwhile, Mike was debating whether he should get a triple patty burger or a five patty burger. It’s worth noting finishing the five patty burger, entitled something along the lines of “THE BURGINATOR,” would get you a spot on a hall of fame, a hoodie, and a few other goodies, so he didn’t just have a death wish.

The Bacon Dog wasn’t quite up to my very American savory standards, but it was still very good. Unlike what I’m used to in America, the bacon was seriously good. Had you taken out the hot dogs and replaced them with fresh grilled American ones, you’d have a really dangerously good combo going.

The DT Bacon Dog. When the menu said “zwei hotdogs” I figured they’d come in separate buns. It was as difficult to keep together as it looks.

The calamari was just as good as I expected; not very. It was still decent, but not worth eating after filling myself up on the Bacon Dog. The batter to calamari ratio was a little too high, and it wasn’t quite salty enough anyway. Better not salty enough than too salty, though.

The calamari. It really wasn’t that bad, there was just a little too much batter and I was full. The salad was pretty good, though.

Meanwhile, Mike was eating his triple patty burger and suffering greatly. It was mostly due, however, to covering an entire french fry in hot sauce entitled “PAIN 100%” and eating it.

Because I’m well known as a bold risk-taker, I decided to try it, by taking about a pinkie-tip’s worth of it, gently dipping the tip of a french fry into that, and briefly touching the sauce with the tip of my tongue.

A french fry garnished with bona-fide, 100% all natural pain.

I swear that the tip of my tongue came close to going numb; the heat wasn’t painful, because I only just barely touched the sauce, but it was some INTENSE heat. I honestly, truly believe that if I’d eaten a “proper” serving of it, I would have literally passed out. The moment I felt the heat, I realized Mike’s predicament. He was handling it like a champ, though, considering everything. The big glass of milk he emptied not long after probably helped.

Tobi, on the other hand, had eaten an entire triple patty burger and was now finishing Alex’s, and offering to finish Mike’s as well, should he need to. I simply sat there drinking my second glass of ginger ale, completely full. I don’t know if it was just because I was abnormally thirsty, the ginger ale is better in Germany, or I just haven’t realized it, but the ginger ale was very good. Maybe I ought to drink it more often.

GameJam Part3

It was a very emotional day for me because I had to say goodbye to MY best friends Christina and Tobi.

I forgot that Sunday had a different bus schedule so I missed my stop and had to walk back to campus. It was HOT. My team completed the game a day before so we were just fixing some minor bugs and waiting for the presentation. In my last blog, I briefly talked about what I worked on the project and I will discuss the details below.

First of all, I created a method for the protagonist’s movement which the protagonist walks to wherever my cursor clicks. Secondly, I wrote a script for the camera to follow the player. Initially, I had the camera as a child of the Game Object Player, however, I changed it later so that the camera could stay inside the scope. During the second GameJam day, I encountered the problem that my player could walk out of the background, yet the camera follows it. It should not be difficult to fix it but I didn’t know how to scale an orthographic camera nicely. It either stayed stationary or cut off some of the backgrounds, like I couldn’t freely resize the camera. The problem got solved in the end tho!!! Afterward, I worked on some animations when events were tricked. For example, after the protagonist completes a dialog with the hover dog in the game, the hover dog takes our player outside and moves out of the screen. In the end, when I had some extra time, I developed a menu screen and an options screen for the game. In the options screen, the volume gets adjusted by using an audio mixer which was my first time using it. I was confused for a while about how to hook up the sound with my audio mixer until Phil showed me the way.

We received some feedback at presentation; some people appreciated the humor in the game, yet some think we could develop more to the story and the idea of timeline. The most impressive game from this GameJam was beat the boss due to completion. It’s a game where four players with different skills team up to fight a super difficult boss in an area. I was amazed by how much they completed in 3 days due to art, coding, game play and so on. In my opinion, muti-player 2D platform game Soshi Shinobi has the most potential for publishing.

At the end of gamejam, we took a group picture together to fill the last spot on Wall of Fame. Second part of the day was free time, and I decided to hang out with my buddies one last time.

Tobi drove us to his house in a sexy convertible. Since German highway doesn’t have speed limit, I kindly asked him to speed up a little bit while Sam made him race (ik he’s bad). Schloß Neuhaus is a castle that’s surrounded by a beautiful garden and a river that goes through the town. Nowadays, Schloß Neuhaus is no longer a castle, in fact, Christina and Tobi went to high school there. We were lucky enough to witness Schützenfest where townspeople gather around to celebrate the new royalty for the upcoming year. As Christina told me, it’s usually the rich people who get selected for crowns. The four of us shared a currywurst together, add on to my German food experience.

Funny part of the story was that I thought Christina could not join us for dinner so I had a really emotional goodbye with her, while they were invited to dinner. So I had burger with her 20 min later. The place had a 40 euro, 5 patties burger that can get you into wall of fame in the restaurant, which I decided to stay as far away as possible. After dinner, we tried to get ice cream but nothing was open since it was Sunday. Instead, we just walked around the town for the last time and chilled in the park.